Shell Lake

Shell Lake is a very small town in northwest Wisconsin, and is the county seat of Washburn County. The lake provides some of the only activities available, such as canoeing, inner-tubing, water skiing, swimming, fishing, and ice fishing. Shell Lake houses the Museum of Woodcarving, which is frequented only by boyscouts and non-residents. Shell Lake is also home to the Shell Lake Arts Center (formerly the Indianhead Arts Center), a music and arts camp that has existed over 35 years. There is only one high school in Shell Lake, and that building contains grades 3-12 (made possible by the fact that each grade has fewer than 50 people). Grades pre-k through 2 are all in Shell Lake Primary School. As of the 2000 census, there were 1,309 people residing in the city and the population density was 211.3 people per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 98.62% White, 0.08% African American, 0.38% Native American, 0.08% Asian, 0.08% from other races, and 0.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.99% of the population.